Egyptian Pyramids - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Egyptian Pyramids A+E Networks Introduction Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids—especially the Great Pyramids of Giza—are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D., the peak of pyramid building began with the late third dynasty and continued until roughly the sixth (c. 2325 B.C.). More than 4,000 years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich and glorious past. Google The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods to serve as mediators between them and the people on earth.

Because of this, it was in everyone’s interest to keep the king’s majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, became Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun-god, Ra. Did You Know? The pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the rays of the sun and were designed to help the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra. Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as “ka”) remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him.

The Early Pyramids From the beginning of the Dynastic Era (2950 B.C.), royal tombs were carved into rock and covered with flat-roofed rectangular structures known as “mastabas,” which were precursors to the pyramids. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around 2630 B.C. at Saqqara, for the third dynasty’s King Djoser. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious. As the story goes, the pyramid’s architect was Imhotep, a priest and healer who some 1,400 years later would be deified as the patron saint of scribes and physicians. Over the course of Djoser’s nearly 20-year reign, pyramid builders assembled six stepped layers of stone (as opposed to mud-brick, like most earlier tombs) that eventually reached a height of 204 feet (62 meters); it was the tallest building of its time. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines, where Djoser would enjoy his afterlife.

After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed (probably due to their relatively short reigns). The earliest tomb constructed as a “true” (smooth-sided, not stepped) pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, one of three burial structures built for the first king of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu (2613-2589 B.C.) It was named for the color of the limestone blocks used to construct the pyramid’s core. The Great Pyramids of Giza No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed seven wonders of the ancient world. It was built for Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu’s successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty.

Though Khufu reigned for 23 years (2589-2566 B.C.), relatively little is known of his reign beyond the grandeur of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramid’s base average 755.75 feet (230 meters), and its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters), making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu’s queens are lined up next to the Great Pyramid, and a tomb was found nearby containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Like other pyramids, Khufu’s is surrounded by rows of mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife. The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu’s son Khafre (2558-2532 B.C). A unique feature built inside Khafre’s pyramid complex was the Great Sphinx, a guardian statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high.

In the 18th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) the Great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself, as the image of a local form of the god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khafre’s son Menkaure (2532-2503 B.C.). It is the shortest of the three pyramids (218 feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone (averaging about 2.5 tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Khufu’s Great Pyramid. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might actually have been around 20,000.

Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby. The End of the Pyramid Era Pyramids continued to be built throughout the fifth and sixth dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period, along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unas (2375-2345 B.C), pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king’s reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid’s interior. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt. The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II (2278-2184 B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years.

By the time of his rule, Old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling, and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials grew. Pepy II’s pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter (172 feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy’s death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great Pyramids. The Pyramids Today Tomb robbers and other vandals in both ancient and modern times removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt’s pyramids and plundered their exteriors as well. Stripped of most of their smooth white limestone coverings, the Great Pyramids no longer reach their original heights; Khufu’s, for example, measures only 451 feet high. Nonetheless, millions of people continue to visit the pyramids each year, drawn by their towering grandeur and the enduring allure of Egypt’s rich and glorious past.

Tags Pyramids of Giza Egypt - History, Location, Entrance Fee, Facts, Map Pyramids of Giza, Egypt PDF The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt The Pyramids of Giza, situated near Al-Jizah, are a popular site in Egypt. This archeological site is located on the west bank of the Nile River and comprises the Great Sphinx guarding the Pyramids of Khufu (Gr. Cheops), Khafre (Gr. Chephren), and Menkaure (Gr. Mycerinus) – the pyramids of all of the prominent rulers from the 4th Dynasty (circa 2550 BC). In front of the pyramid, there is a temple ruin, from where the visitors click photographs of the pyramids. Pyramids History The oldest pyramid of the group is called the Great Pyramid. It was named after Khufu, the Pharaoh who had perhaps commissioned the pyramid. He was the second king of the 4th Dynasty. The middle pyramid was built for Khafre. He was the fourth of the eight kings of the same dynasty. The last pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Menkaure, was built for the fifth king of the dynasty.

A satisfactory answer to how the pyramids were built still remains elusive. According to Herodotus, the Greek historian, around 100,000 men took 20 years to construct the Great Pyramid. However, archeologists in the late 20th century came close to a conclusion that it was built by only 20,000 workers. All three pyramids came under attack in ancient and medieval ages. The Great Pyramid of Giza or Khufu Pyramid The Great Pyramid is also called the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), after the Pharaoh who probably had the pyramids built. At a height of 481.4 ft (147 m), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure until the 1800s. Each side of the Great Pyramid is oriented with one of the cardinal directions of the compass (north, south, east, and west). Visitors can enter the Great Pyramid through a passage in the masonry. The Great Pyramid of Khufu is made up of around 2.3 million blocks of stone, and is estimated to weigh 5.75 million tons.

Visitors can enter the Great Pyramid through a passage in the masonry. Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren) The Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren), the second pyramid, is situated to the southwest of the Pyramid of Khufu. Although it appears to be taller than the Great Pyramid, it is actually smaller than that of Khufu and only appears taller because it stands on a higher ground. This pyramid was built by Khufu’s son Khafre. Pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus) The third pyramid, the Pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus), is the smallest of all the three and stands some 220 ft (67m) high. It was started by Khafre’s son Menkaure. The pyramids are notable for their incredible construction, using limestone and granite, which manifests a high degree of mathematical accuracy. Many theories about how the pyramids were constructed without the assistance of modern machines have been postulated. However, the mystery of the pyramids is yet to be solved. The Great Sphinx In front of the Great Pyramid stands the Sphinx, a statue of a creature with the body of a lion and the head of a man.

The Sphinx , which stands 20 meters (66 feet) high, and measures about 73.5 meters long, was probably carved over 4,500 years ago out of sandstone. Mystery Surrounding Them The mystery of the pyramids has allured many archaeologists to discover the secrets hidden within the tombs. Dr. Zahi Hawass, former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs and an Egyptian archaeologist, has led several successful campaigns to unearth the secrets of the pyramids. Some hieroglyphics have been discovered in the pyramids in one of the recent expeditions. There is a disputed theory known as “The Orion Correlation Theory”, proposed by Robert Bauval, author of “The Orion Mystery”, which states that the disposition of the three pyramids of Giza was inspired from three stars in the Orion’s belt. Things to do The Pyramids of Giza featuring the Ancient Egyptian architectural style promote tourism in Egypt. People travel from all over the world to see these wonderful monuments. You may ride a camel, or just walk around and see the pyramids. Do not miss the Pyramids of Giza sound and light show conducted at night.

The guarding Sphinx is the venue for the night show conducted by the MISR Company for Sound, Light and Cinema. Book a tour to Egypt to enjoy the sight of these wonders. Travel Tip: The sellers, hawkers, and touts are more aggressive at the pyramids. Stay in a group to safeguard yourself. Nearby Tourist Attractions: While in Egypt, you may also plan to visit the Saqqara Pyramid Complex and Egyptian Museum located near the pyramids. Pyramids of Giza Location The Giza Necropolis is located around Cairo, Egypt, in a town called Giza. The pyramids are about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away from the city of Cairo, in the desert and along the Nile River. From Cairo International Airport, you can hire a cab to visit the Great Pyramids. Metro Line 2 connects Cairo to Giza, and from the Giza Station, you can take a taxi, bus or mini bus that goes to the Pyramids. Pyramids of Giza Map Location map of Pyramid of Giza Q1.)What are the coordinates of the Pyramids of Giza?

The latitudinal and longitudinal ranges of the Pyramids are 29.9792° N, 31.1344° E. Q2.)How far are the Pyramids of Giza from Cairo? There are three suggested routes to reach the Pyramids: The Ring Road route: Distance of around 22.4 kilometers; estimated travel time: approximately 26 minutes. The Ring Road and Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road route: Distance of around 18.5 kilometers; estimated travel time: approximately 26 minutes. The Nile Corniche and Ring Road route: Distance of around 22.4 kilometers; estimated travel time: approximately 28 minutes. Q3.)How far are the Pyramids of Giza from Sharm el-Sheikh? The pyramids are at a distance of around 526.4 kilometers from Sharm el-Sheikh. It takes approximately 6 hours to reach the pyramids via road. Video Hotels near Pyramids of Giza Pyramids Inn Motel and Pyramids View Bed and Breakfast are some of the pocket-friendly accommodations that visitors can opt for.

Mid-range hotels near the pyramids include Barcelo Cairo Pyramids, Mayorca Hotel, and Kanzy Hotel. To spend their days in Egypt in luxury, the tourists prefer Horizon Pyramids Hotel, Le Méridien Pyramids Hotel & Spa, and Grand Pyramids Hotel. Hotels Name 53, Studio Misr Road – Mariottia, Gîza, Al Jizah, Egypt reservation@grandpyramidshotel.com Pyramids of Giza Facts The Pyramids of Giza are a group of pyramids (also called the Giza Necropolis) that were constructed as tombs for the Egyptian royals. The largest of the pyramids, known as the Great Pyramid of Giza, is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Out of the three pyramids, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, which was built by the pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BC, is the oldest and largest. Read More: Pyramids of Giza Facts Best Time to Visit The best times to visit the Egypt pyramids are during winter or spring, to avoid the intense heat of the desert in summer.

Pyramids of Giza Opening Hours Open Daily May 1 to Ramadan: 7:00 am – 7:00 pm Ramadan 1 to April 30: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Note: The pyramid of Khufu is closed from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Pyramids of Giza Entrance Fee General Admission Tickets include entry to the Valley Temple of Khafre, Pyramid of Hetepheres (G1a), Pyramid of Meretites (G1b), Pyramid of Henut-sen (G1c), Tomb of Idu, Tomb of Qar, Tomb of Seshemnefer, Tomb of Sennedjem-Ib, Tomb of Pa-sen, Tomb of Ka-em-ankh and Tomb of Nen-sedjer-ka. Charges: Egyptian: 2 LE (Students: 1 LE) Foreign: 50 LE (Students: 25 LE) Separate tickets are available for entry to the pyramid of Khafre, the pyramid of Khufu, and the Sound and Light Show.

Charges: Pyramid of Khufu: Egyptian: 20 LE (Students: 10 LE) Foreign: 100 LE (Students: 50 LE) Only 150 tickets are sold during morning and 150 after 1:00 pm for entry into the Pyramid of Khufu. Pyramid of Khafre: Egyptian: 2 LE (Students: 1 LE) Foreign: 25 LE (Students: 15 LE) Update: The Pyramid of Khafre is currently closed for the routine restoration work. Pyramid of Menkaure: Foreign: 40 LE (Students: 20 LE) Update: Pyramid of Menkaure was reopened to the public after two-year renovation done by over 20 Egyptian and European conservators and professional archeologists. Pyramid of Menkaure is currently closed. Information about Pyramids of Giza Q1.)What is inside the Pyramids of Giza? There is a King’s Chamber and Queen’s Chamber inside the pyramids. Q2.)Why is the Great Pyramid of Giza 30 feet shorter than its original size?

The loss of capstone and erosion made the Great Pyramid of Giza 30 feet shorter than its original size. Q3.)How many sides does the Great Pyramid of Giza have? It has four sides. The pyramid is constructed on a square platform and all four sides are inclined at a specific angle to meet at a point. Q4.)Can you climb the Pyramids of Giza? Initially, the highly dangerous activity of climbing the pyramids was a popular tourist activity. However, the government banned it recently and climbing pyramids is now considered a serious crime. MS20151123 Great Pyramid at Giza Great Pyramid at Giza One of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World Brian Lawrence/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images By Jen Rosenberg, Contributing Writer Updated August 02, 2015. The Great Pyramid of Giza, located about ten miles southwest of Cairo, was built as a burial site for Egyptian pharaoh Khufu in the 26th century BCE. Standing at 481 feet high, the Great Pyramid was not only the largest pyramid ever built, it remained one of the tallest structures in the world until the late 19th century.

Impressing visitors with its massiveness and beauty, it's no surprise that the Great Pyramid at Giza was considered one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World . Amazingly, the Great Pyramid has withstood the test of time, standing for over 4,500 years; it is the only Ancient Wonder to have survived to the present. Who Was Khufu? Khufu (known in Greek as Cheops) was the second king of the 4th dynasty in ancient Egypt , ruling for about 23 years in the late 26th century BCE. He was the son of Egyptian Pharaoh Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres I. Sneferu remains famous for being the very first pharaoh to build a pyramid. Despite fame for building the second and largest pyramid in Egyptian history, there's not a lot more that we know about Khufu. continue reading below our video Top Tips for Visiting the Pyramids of Giza Only one, extremely tiny (three inch), ivory statue has been found of him, giving us just a glimpse at what he must have looked like.

We know that two of his children (Djedefra and Khafre) became pharaohs after him and it is believed that he had at least three wives. Whether or not Khufu was a kind or evil ruler is still debated. For centuries, many believed that he must have been hated because of stories that he used slaves to create the Great Pyramid. This has since been found untrue. It is more likely that the Egyptians, who viewed their pharaohs as god-men, found him not as beneficent as his father, but still a traditional, ancient-Egyptian ruler. The Great Pyramid The Great Pyramid is a masterpiece of engineering and workmanship. The accuracy and precision of the Great Pyramid astounds even modern builders. It stands on a rocky plateau located on the west bank of the Nile River in northern Egypt. At the time of construction, there was nothing else there. Only later did this area become built up with two additional pyramids, the Sphinx, and other mastabas. The Great Pyramid is huge, covering a little over 13 acres of ground. Each side, although not exactly the same length, is about 756-feet long. Each corner is nearly an exact 90 degree angle.

Also Interesting is that each side is aligned to face one of the cardinal points of the compass -- north, east, south, and west. Its entrance lies in the middle of the north side. The structure of the Great Pyramid is made from 2.3 million, extremely large, heavy, cut-stone blocks, weighing an average of 2 1/2 tons each, with the largest weighing 15 tons. It is said that when Napoleon Bonaparte visited the Great Pyramid in 1798, he calculated that there was enough stone to build a one-foot-wide, 12-feet-high wall around France. On top of the stone was placed a smooth layer of white limestone. At the very top was placed a capstone, some say made of electrum (a mixture of gold and silver). The limestone surface and the capstone would have made the entire pyramid sparkle in sunlight. Inside the Great Pyramid are three burial chambers. The first lies underground, The second, often mistakenly called the Queen's Chamber, is located just above ground. The third and final chamber, the King's Chamber, lies in the heart of the pyramid. A Grand Gallery leads up to it.

It is believed that Khufu was buried in a heavy, granite coffin within the King's Chamber. How Did They Build It? It seems amazing that an ancient culture could build something so massive and precise, especially since they had only copper and bronze tools to worth with. Exactly how they did this has been an unsolved puzzle perplexing people for centuries. It is said that the whole project took 30 years to complete -- 10 years for preparation and 20 for the actual building. Many believe this to be possible, with the chance that it could have been built even faster. The workmen who built the Great Pyramid were not slaves, as once thought, but regular Egyptian peasants who were conscripted to help with building for about three months out of the year -- i.e. during the time when the Nile floods and farmers were not needed in their fields. The stone was quarried on the east side of the Nile, cut into shape, and then placed on a sledge that was pulled by men to the river's edge. Here, the huge stones were loaded onto barges, ferried across the river, and then dragged to the construction site.

It is believed that the most likely way the Egyptians got those heavy stones up so high was by building a huge, earthen ramp. As each level was completed, the ramp was built higher, hiding the level below it. When all the huge stones were in place, the workmen worked from top to bottom to place the limestone covering. As they worked downward, the earthen ramp was removed little by little. Only once the limestone covering was completed could the ramp be fully removed and the Great Pyramid be revealed. Looting and Damage No one is sure how long the Great Pyramid stood intact before being looted, but it was probably not long. Centuries ago, all of the pharaoh's riches had been taken, even his body had been removed. All that remains is the bottom of his granite coffin -- even the top is missing. The capstone is also long gone. Thinking there was still treasure inside, Arab ruler Caliph Ma'mum ordered his men to hack their way into the Great Pyramid in 818 CE. They did manage to find the Grand Gallery and the granite coffin, but it had all been emptied of treasure long ago.

Upset at so much hard work with no reward, the Arabs pried off the limestone covering and took some of the cut-stone blocks to use for buildings. In total, they took about 30-feet off the top of the Great Pyramid. What remains is an empty pyramid, still grand in size but not as pretty since just a very small portion of its once beautiful limestone casing remains along the bottom. What About Those Other Two Pyramids? The Great Pyramid at Giza now sits with two other pyramids. The second one was built by Khafre, Khufu's son. Although Khafre's pyramid appears larger than his father's, it's an illusion since the ground is higher under Khafre's pyramid. In reality, it is 33.5-feet shorter. Khafre is believed to have also built the Great Sphinx, which sits regally by his pyramid. The third pyramid at Giza is much shorter, standing only 228-feet high. It was built as a burial place for Menkaura, Khufu's grandson and Khafre's son.

The help protect these three pyramids at Giza from further vandalism and disrepair, they were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. The Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza Pyramids of Giza, soaring above the city of Cairo, Egypt ( Enlarge ) The Great Pyramid of Giza is the most substantial ancient structure in the world - and the most mysterious. According to prevailing archaeological theory - and there is absolutely no evidence to confirm this idea - the three pyramids on the Giza plateau are funerary structures of three kings of the fourth dynasty (2575 to 2465 BC). The Great Pyramid, attributed to Khufu (Cheops) is on the right of the photograph, the pyramid attributed to Khafra (Chephren) next to it, and that of Menkaura (Mycerinus) the smallest of the three. The Great Pyramid was originally 481 feet, five inches tall (146.7 meters) and measured 755 feet (230 meters) along its sides.

Covering an area of 13 acres, or 53,000 square meters, it is large enough to contain the European cathedrals of Florence, Milan, St. Peters, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's. Constructed from approximately 2.5 million limestone blocks weighing on average 2.6 tons each, its total mass is more than 6.3 million tons (representing more building material than is to be found in all the churches and cathedrals built in England since the time of Christ). The Great Pyramid was originally encased in highly polished, smooth white limestone and capped, according to legend, by a perfect pyramid of black stone, probably onyx. Covering an area of 22 acres the white limestone casing was removed by an Arab sultan in AD 1356 in order to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo. Herodotus, the great Greek geographer, visited in the fifth century BC. Strabo, a Greco / Roman historian, came in the first century AD.

Abdullah Al Mamun, son of the Caliph of Baghdad, forced the first historically recorded entrance in AD 820, and Napoleon was spellbound when he beheld the fantastic structure in 1798. According to our present knowledge the Great Pyramid of Giza is mostly solid mass, it’s only known interior spaces being the Descending passage (the original entrance), the Ascending passage, the Grand Gallery, a mysterious grotto, an equally mysterious subterranean chamber, and the two main chambers. These two chambers, called the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber, have unfortunately retained the misleading names given to them by early Arab visitors to the pyramid. It is an Arab custom to bury men in tombs with a flat roof and women in rooms with a gabled roof; therefore, in the Great Pyramid, the flat-roofed granite chamber became the King's Chamber, while the gabled, limestone chamber below became the Queen's. Even those archaeologists who still stubbornly subscribe to the tomb theory of the pyramid do not believe that a queen or anyone else was ever buried in the limestone chamber.

The King's Chamber is 10.46 meters east to west by 5.23 meters north to south by 5.81 meters high (a series of measurements that precisely expresses the mathematical proportion known as the Golden Mean, or Phi). It is built of enormous blocks of solid red granite (weighing as much as 50 tons) that were transported by a still-unknown means from the quarries of Aswan 600 miles to the south. Within the chamber, in the western end, sits a large, lidless coffer (7.5 feet by 3.25 feet, with sides averaging 6.5 inches thick) of dark black granite estimated to weigh more than three tons. When the Arab Abdullah Al Mamun finally forced his entry into the chamber in AD 820 - the first entry since the chamber was sealed in some long ago time - he found the coffer entirely empty. Egyptologists assume that this was the final resting place of Khufu, yet not the slightest evidence suggests that a corpse had ever been in this coffer or chamber.

Nor have any embalming materials, any fragments of any article, or any clues whatsoever been found in the chamber or anywhere else in the entire pyramid that in any way indicates that Khufu (or anyone else) was ever buried there. Furthermore, the passageway leading from the Grand Gallery to the main chamber is too narrow to admit the movement of the coffer; the coffer must have been placed in the chamber as the pyramid was being built, contrary to the normal burial custom practiced by the Egyptians for three thousand years. The foolishness of the common assumption, that the Giza plateau pyramids were built and utilized by fourth Dynasty kings as funerary structures, cannot be overstated. It is a matter of archaeological fact that none of the fourth Dynasty kings put their names on the pyramids supposedly constructed in their times, yet from the fifth Dynasty onwards, the other pyramids had hundreds of official inscriptions, leaving us no doubt about which kings built them. The mathematical complexity, engineering requirements, and sheer size of the Giza plateau pyramids represent an enormous, seemingly impossible leap in abilities over the third dynasty buildings.

Contemporary Egyptological explanation cannot account for this leap, nor can they account for the clear decline in mathematics, engineering and size of the constructions of the fifth dynasty. Textbooks speak of "religious upheaval" and "civil wars," but there is no evidence whatsoever of these having occurred. The attribution to Khufu of the Great Pyramid of Giza is founded solely upon three very circumstantial pieces of "evidence": The legends told to and reported by Herodotus who visited the pyramids in 443 BC The funerary complex near the Great Pyramid with inscriptions citing Cheops/Khufu as the reigning pharaoh In the pyramid itself, on a granite slab above the ceiling of the main chamber, some small, red ochre paint marks that have a slight resemblance to a hieroglyphic symbol for the name of Khufu. Giza Pyramids after sunset, Egypt ( Enlarge ) Pharaoh Khufu himself left no indication whatsoever that he built the Great Pyramid of Giza. He did, however, claim to have done repair work on the structure.

On the nearby "Inventory" Stele (dating to about 1500 BC, but showing evidence of having been copied from a far older stele contemporaneous with the fourth dynasty), Khufu tells of discoveries made while clearing away the sands from the pyramid, of his dedication of the monument to Isis, and of his building of the three small pyramids for himself, his wife, and his daughters next to the Great Pyramid. Regarding the red ochre paint marks found within the pyramid, most hieroglyph experts now believe these to be forgeries left by their "discoverer" Richard Howard-Vyse, rather than being quarry inscriptions left by the original builders. Howard-Vyse was under pressure to equal the discoveries of his rival, the Italian explorer Caviglia, who had found inscriptions in some of the tombs around the Great Pyramid. Modern researchers now suspect that, in the battle for one-upmanship, Howard-Vyse sought to overshadow his rival and gain renewed support for his own projects with a similar but more spectacular "discovery", by forging quarry inscriptions inside the Great Pyramid. In other words, no firm evidence in any way connects the pyramids of the Giza plateau to the dynastic Egyptians.

Let us briefly consider a few matters concerning the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza; matters which clearly indicate that the builders of fourth dynasty Egypt did not have the engineering capacity to erect the Great Pyramid (we do not have the capacity even today) and that this structure was used for a purpose altogether different from mere burial. The Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed with approximately 2,300,000 limestone and granite blocks. Weighing between 2.5 and 50 tons each, these stone blocks had to be quarried from the earth. Herein lays our first unsolved problem. In the Cairo museum one can see several examples of simple copper and bronze saws, which Egyptologists claim are like those utilized in the cutting and shaping of the pyramid blocks. These tools present a problem. On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, copper and bronze have a hardness of 3.5 to 4, while limestone has a hardness of 4 to 5 and granite of 5 to 6. The known tools would only barely cut through limestone and would be useless with granite.

No archaeological examples of iron tools are found in early dynastic Egypt, yet even if they were, the best steels today have a hardness of only 5.5 and thus are inefficient for cutting granite. Some years ago Sir Flinders Petrie, one of the "fathers" of Egyptology proposed that the pyramid blocks had been cut with long saw blades studded with diamonds or corundum. But this idea presents problems too. The cutting of millions of blocks would require millions of rare and expensive diamonds and corundum, which constantly wear out and require replacement. It has been suggested that the limestone blocks were somehow cut with solutions of citric acid or vinegar, yet these very slow-acting agents leave the surface of the limestone pitted and rough, unlike the beautifully smooth surface found on the casing stones, and these agents are completely useless for the cutting of granite. The truth is, we have no idea how the blocks were actually quarried. The unsolved problem of how the 2,300,000 very heavy blocks were transported to the building site of the pyramid is even more mystifying. How were the blocks taken to the nearly 500- foot height of the pyramid’s summit? A Danish civil engineer, P.

Garde-Hanson, has calculated that a ramp built all the way to the top of the pyramid would require 17.5 million cubic meters of material, this representing more than seven times the amount of material used for the pyramid itself, and a work force of 240,000 to build it in the time allotted by Cheops' reign. But if this enormous ramp were built, it would then require a force of more than 300,000 laborers as much as eight years to dismantle. Where would all the ramp material have been placed, since it is not to be found anywhere near the Great Pyramid? And what of maneuvering the precisely carved blocks into place without damaging the corners? Various lifting devices and levers have been proposed by modern engineers (remember, no existing dynastic records, paintings, or friezes give any clue to this mystery), but none solve the problem of how the 50-ton blocks of the main chamber were lifted and positioned using an area where only four to six workers could stand, when the strength of at least 2000 would be needed.

Next we come to perhaps the most extraordinary problem, that of the fashioning and placement of the highly polished limestone casing stones that covered the entire pyramid. The finished pyramid contained approximately 115,000 of these stones, each weighing ten tons or more. These stones were dressed on all six of their sides, not just the side exposed to the visible surface, to tolerances of .01 inch. They are set together so closely that a thin razor blade cannot be inserted between the stones. Egyptologist Petrie expressed his astonishment of this feat by writing, "Merely to place such stones in exact contact would be careful work, but to do so with cement in the joint seems almost impossible; it is to be compared to the finest opticians' work on the scale of acres." Herodotus, visiting in the fifth century BC, reported that inscriptions of strange characters were to be found on the pyramid's casing stones.

In AD 1179 the Arab historian Abd el Latif recorded that these inscriptions were so numerous that they could have filled "more than ten thousand written pages." William of Baldensal, a European visitor of the early fourteenth century, tells how the stones were covered with strange symbols arranged in careful rows. Sadly, in 1356, following an earthquake that leveled Cairo, the Arabs robbed the pyramid of its beautiful casing of stones to rebuild mosques and fortresses in the city. As the stones were cut into smaller pieces and reshaped, all traces of the ancient inscriptions were removed from them. A great library of ageless wisdom was forever lost. Still further evidence that the dynastic Egyptians did not construct the Great Pyramid of Giza may be found in sediments surrounding the base of the monument, in legends regarding watermarks on the stones halfway up its sides, and in salt incrustations found within. Silt sediments rising to fourteen feet around the base of the pyramid contain many seashells and fossils that have been radiocarbon-dated to be nearly twelve thousand years old.

These sediments could have been deposited in such great quantities only by major sea flooding, an event the dynastic Egyptians could never have recorded because they were not living in the area until eight thousand years after the flood. This evidence alone suggests that the three main Giza pyramids are at least twelve thousand years old. In support of this ancient flood scenario, mysterious legends and records tell of watermarks that were clearly visible on the limestone casing stones of the Great Pyramid before those stones were removed by the Arabs. These watermarks were halfway up the sides of the pyramid, or about 400 feet above the present level of the Nile River. Further, when the Great Pyramid was first opened, incrustations of salt an inch thick were found inside. While much of this salt is known to be natural exudation from the stones of the pyramid, chemical analysis has shown that some of the salt has a mineral content consistent with salt from the sea. These salt incrustations, found at a height corresponding to the water level marks left on the exterior, are further evidence that at some time in the distant past the pyramid was submerged halfway up its height.

The building blocks of the Great Pyramid of Giza ( Enlarge ) Let us turn our attention briefly to the matter of the purpose or multiple purposes of the Great Pyramid, drawing for our discussion on both the exact measurements made by modern scientists and the mythic legends of the remote past. A few facts: The sides of the pyramid are lined up almost exactly with the cardinal points of the compass. The accuracy of this alignment is extraordinary, with an average discrepancy of only about three minutes of arc in any direction or a variation of less than 0.06 percent. The Great Pyramid functioned as an enormous sundial. Its shadow to the north, and its reflected sunlight to the south, accurately marked the annual dates of both the solstices and the equinoxes. The basic dimensions of the Great Pyramid incorporate measurements from which the earth's size and shape can be calculated. The pyramid is a scale model of the hemisphere, incorporating the geographical degrees of latitude and longitude.

The latitude and longitude lines that intersect at the Great Pyramid (30 degrees north and 31 degrees east) cross more of the earth's land surface than any other lines, thus the pyramid is located at the center of the land mass of the earth (the pyramid is built on the closest suitable site to this intersection). The original perimeter of the pyramid equals exactly one-half minute of latitude at the equator, indicating that its builders measured the earth with extreme precision and recorded this information in the dimensions of the structure. Altogether these measurements show that the builders knew the exact dimensions of the planet as precisely as they have been recently determined by satellite surveys. The foundation of the Great Pyramid is amazingly level. No corner of its base is more than one-half inch higher or lower than the others. Considering that the pyramid's base covers more than thirteen acres, this near-perfect leveling far exceeds even the finest architectural standards of the present day. Measurements throughout the pyramid show that its constructors knew of the proportions of pi (3.14...), phi or the Golden Mean (1.618), and the "Pythagorean" triangles thousands of years before Pythagoras, the so-called father of geometry, lived.

Measurements show that the builders knew the precise spherical shape and size of the earth and had accurately charted such complex astronomical events as the precession of the equinoxes and the lunar standstill dates. The minute discrepancies of the lengths of the base of the pyramid (several inches over the 230 meter length of its base) reveal not an error on the part of the builders but an ingenious means of incorporating into the pyramid the "discrepancies" of the earth itself, in this case the flattening of the earth's globe at the poles. Shafts leading upward from the two main chambers, previously thought to be air shafts for ventilation, have been shown to have another possible purpose. A miniature electronic robot mechanically crawled sixty-five meters up the shafts and its findings suggested that the south and north shafts in the Kings Chamber are pointed to Al Nitak (Zeta Orionis) and Alpha Draconis respectively, while the south and north shafts of the Queens Chamber point to Sirius and Beta Ursa Minor. The scientists conducting this research believe that the layout of the three pyramids on the Giza plateau precisely mirror the position of the three main stars in the Orion constellation.

(While crawling along one of the shafts in the Queens chamber, the robot's cameras photographed a previously unknown closed door that may lead to some hidden chamber.) Readers interested in these new findings should consult The Orion Mystery by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert. The Pyramids of Giza ( Enlarge ) What does all this mean? Why did the ancient builders of the Giza pyramids, whoever they may have been, encode so much precise mathematical, geographic, and astronomical information into their structures? What was the purpose of the Great Pyramid? While no authoritative answer can presently be given to this question, two intriguing matters suggest a direction for further inquiry and research. The first has to do with the persistent legends that the Great Pyramid of Giza, and especially the main chamber, was used as some sort of sacred initiation center. According to one legend, students who had first undergone long years of preparation, meditation and metaphysical instruction in an esoteric school (the mythic "Hall of Records" hidden deep beneath the desert sands somewhere near the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx) were placed in the granite coffer of the main chamber and left alone throughout an entire night.

The coffer was the focal point of the energies gathered, concentrated, aimed, and directed at the main chamber by virtue of the precise mathematical location, alignment, and construction of the pyramid. These energies, considered to be especially potent at certain precisely calculated periods when the earth was in a particular geometric alignment with solar, lunar, and stellar objects, were conducive to the awakening, stimulation, and acceleration of spiritual consciousness in the suitably prepared adept. While it is now nearly impossible to spend an evening alone in the coffer of the main chamber, it is interesting to read the reports of those persons who have done so in the past. Mention will be made of experiences both terribly frightening (perhaps because of the lack of any appropriate training on the part of the experimenter) and also deeply peaceful, even spiritually illuminating. Napoleon himself spent a night alone in the chamber. Emerging pale and dazed, he would not speak of his powerful experiences, only saying, "You would not believe me if I told you." A second matter needing further inquiry from the scientific community studying the Great Pyramid of Giza - and one that might help explain the subject just discussed - concerns the matter of unexplained energetic anomalies frequently noticed and recorded in the main chamber.

In the 1920s, a Frenchman named Antoine Bovis made the surprising discovery that, despite the heat and high humidity of the main chamber, the dead bodies of animals left in the chamber did not decay but completely dehydrated. Thinking that there might be some relationship between this phenomena and the position of the main chamber in the pyramid, Bovis constructed a small-scale model of the pyramid, oriented it to the same direction as the Great Pyramid, and placed the body of a dead cat at the approximate level of the main chamber. The result was the same. As he had observed in the Great Pyramid, the cat's body did not decay. In the 1960s, researchers in Czechoslovakia and the U.S., conducting limited studies of the geometry of the pyramid, repeated this experiment with the same results. They also found that the form of the pyramid somehow mysteriously kept foods preserved without spoiling, sharpened dull razor blades, induced plants to germinate and grow more quickly, and hastened the healing of animals' wounds.

Other scientists, in consideration of the high quartz content of the granite blocks in the main chamber and the incredible pressures those blocks are subjected to, theorized that the main chamber may have been the focal point of a powerful piezoelectric field; magnetometer measurements inside the chamber indeed showed higher levels than the normal background geomagnetic field. Although much research remains to be done in these areas, legend, archaeology, mathematics, and earth sciences seem to indicate that the Great Pyramid was a monumental device for gathering, amplifying, and focusing a mysterious energy field for the spiritual benefit of human beings. We do not know exactly how the pyramid and its main chamber were used, and the geometric structure of the pyramid has been subtly altered by the removal of the casing stones and the cap-stone. None-the-less, the Great Pyramid of the Giza plateau still emanates great power as a transformational power place. It has done so for uncounted thousands of years and seems destined to continue for ages to come.

Pyramids of Giza Pyramids of Giza Sneferu’s Pyramids The fourth-dynasty king, Sneferu 2686 – 2667 BC, was the first to create the pyramid shape that we all recognize and associate with Egyptian architecture. He built three pyramids in all—but the first two were glorious failures. Medum pyramid surrounded by rubble – The Bent Pyramid – The Red Pyramid. His first, the pyramid at Medum, began as a step pyramid and was then modified to form the first true pyramid. But it was unstable and the limestone blocks began to slip. Soon, work on it was abandoned. King Sneferu then moved to Dahshur and built a second pyramid, which we now know as the “Bent Pyramid” because its upper part rises at a shallower angle of incline than the lower part. The Bent Pyramid was originally planned as a true pyramid, but the corners were built on unstable ground and the walls of the burial chambers inside began to crack and shift inward. Of necessity, the building’s geometry was altered at a point just above half its height.

The angle of incline was decreased from 54º 31’ 13’’ to 43º 21’. This was probably done to alleviate the stresses in the lower part of the pyramid and make it stronger. But the bent pyramid was never used. Instead, Sneferu began a third pyramid about a mile way. This one is called the red pyramid because of the red limestone blocks used in its construction. It became the world’s first successful true pyramid. The Pyramids of Giza With the red pyramid, Sneferu set the standard for all true pyramids to come. He included aboveground burial chambers, a mortuary temple, and a causeway leading down to a valley temple. This was the model followed by his son, Khufu, wh built the first and largest pyramid at Giza. The Giza pyramids were erected on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile in northern Egypt and were connected, by covered causeways, to mortuary temples in the valley below the plateau. These temples had landing stages which were linked to the Nile by a canal. In ancient times they were included among the Seven Wonders of the World.

Pyramids of Giza Khufu – 2575-2566 BC [slideshow_deploy id=’1211′]The largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is truly an astonishing work of engineering. It was built over a twenty year period. Some believe that it was built by slaves, but this is not true. One hundred thousand people worked on the great structure for three months of each year, during the Nile’s annual flood when it was impossible to farm the land and most of the population was unemployed. The pharaoh provided good food and clothing for his workers, and was kindly remembered in folk tales for many centuries. The sides are oriented to the four cardinal points of the compass and the length of each side at the base is 755 feet (230.4 m). The faces rise at an angle of 51º 52’ and their original height was 481 feet (147 m). (They currently rise 451 feet [138 m].) It was constructed using around 2,300,000 limestone blocks, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons.

Some blocks weigh as much as 16 tons. For centuries, the Great Pyramid was encased in smooth limestone, but this was plundered in our era to build Cairo. Khafre 2558–2532 BC Khufu’s son, Khafre (also known as Chephren). His pyramid, on a nearby site at Giza, appears taller than his father’s, but this is an illu¬sion; it is built on higher ground and was in fact, origi¬nally at 447 .5 feet (136.4 m), 33.5 feet (10.2 m) shorter than the Great Pyramid. Khafre’s pyramid retains some of its original limestone casing at the apex, and so it is possible to imagine how the pyramids might have ap¬peared in antiquity. Khafre also built the Great Sphinx, which is 66 feet high (20 m) and 240 feet long (73 m) and is part of Khafre’s pyramid complex.

It represents Ra-Harakhte, the sun god, as he rises in the east at dawn but the face of the Sphinx is a portrait of Khafre himself, and is contemporary with his pyramid. It was carved from an outcropping of limestone left after quarrying the stone for his father’s pyramid. Unfortunately, the great sphinx has deteriorated over the millennia and was extensively renovated in ancient times. More recently it was mutilated by the Sultan Mohammed an-Nasir in AD 1300; and lost its nose in 1798, when Napoleon’s soldiers used it for target practice. There have recently been a number of speculative theories concerning the age of the Great Sphinx, but no material evidence exists to suggest that its history should be revised. Menkaura 2532-2503 BC Khafre’s son, Menkaura built the third pyramid at the Giza necropolis (cem¬etery). With an original height of 228 feet (70 m), it is less than half the height of the pyramid built by his grandfather, Khufu. The lower layers consist of red granite from Aswan and the upper courses were originally made of gleaming white limestone.

Pyramid List Although pyramid-building in stone continued until the end of the Old Kingdom, the pyramids of Giza were never surpassed in their size and the technical excellence of their construction. New Kingdom ancient Egyptians marvelled at their predecessors monuments, which were then well over a thousand year old. Pyramids were built during the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC) but these consisted of a mud brick core with a stone skin and are now mere piles of rubble. There are over 100 recorded pyramids in Egypt most of which belong to minor royalty or have no known owners. They required an enormous investment in resources and stood out in the landscape as easy pray to the robbers. The last royal pyramid was built by the first king of the 18th dynasty Ahmose 1550-1525 BC but, after that, the Egyptians ceased building these majestic burial structures for all time.

Saqqara Senusret III 1874-1855 bc Amenemhet III 1855-1808 bc Abu Roash Pyramids in Latin America - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Pyramids in Latin America A+E Networks Introduction Despite the towering reputation of Egypt’s Great Pyramids at Giza, the Americas actually contain more pyramid structures than the rest of the planet combined. Civilizations like the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca all built pyramids to house their deities, as well as to bury their kings. In many of their great city-states, temple-pyramids formed the center of public life and were the site of much holy ritual, including human sacrifice. The best known Latin American pyramids include the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacán in central Mexico, the Castillo at Chichén Itzá in the Yucatan, the Great Pyramid in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the Pyramid at Cholula and the Inca’s great temple at Cuzco in Peru. Google Rise of the Pyramid-Builders Mesoamerican peoples built pyramids from around 1000 B.C.

up until the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. The earliest known pyramid stands at La Venta in Tabasco , Mexico. Built by the Olmecs, the first major Mesoamerican civilization, it dates to between 1000 B.C. and 400 B.C. American pyramids were generally built of earth and then faced with stone, typically in a stepped, or layered, shape topped by a platform or temple structure. Did You Know? In many cases, pyramids in Latin America were rebuilt again and again over already existing structures, in order to glorify the current ruler. Rebuilding the pyramid, it was believed, was a crucial process that renewed the king's relationship with the gods. At one point, historians concluded that (in contrast with Egyptian pyramids), pre-Columbian pyramids were not intended as burial chambers but as homes for deities. However, more recent excavations have unearthed evidence that some pyramids did include tombs, and there is also evidence that city-states used the pyramids for military defense. Pyramid of the Sun The most famous single pyramid in Latin America is the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán, Mexico .

The Teotihuacán was one of the most dominant societies in Mesoamerica; their namesake capital, located northeast of today’s Mexico City, had a population of 100,000 to 200,000 during the fifth and sixth centuries. According to Aztec tradition, the sun and the moon, as well as the rest of the universe, traced their origins to Teotihuacán. More temples have been discovered there than in any other Mesoamerican city. The Teotihuacán built the Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon between A.D. 1 and 250. Like many Mesoamerican pyramids, each was constructed around a core of rubble held in place by retaining walls. The walls were then faced with adobe bricks, and then covered with limestone. The base of the Pyramid of the Sun measures 730 feet per side, with five stepped terraces reaching a height of some 200 feet. Its massive size rivals that of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. Within the current pyramid is another, earlier pyramid structure of almost the same size.

In 1971, archaeologists discovered a cave underneath the Pyramid of the Sun, leading to a chamber in the shape of a four-leaf clover. Artifacts found in the cave indicated the room’s use as a shrine, long before the pyramid itself was built. The Pyramid of the Moon, though similar, was built on a smaller scale; it sits at the north end of the city’s main axis, called the Avenue of the Dead. Teotihuacán also contains a smaller stepped, stone-covered temple-pyramid called the Temple of the Feathered Serpent (an early form of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl). It was dedicated around A.D. 200, and evidence has been found of some 200 individuals who were sacrificed in the ceremony to honor it. Teotihuacán declined between the seventh and 10th centuries and was eventually abandoned. Maya Pyramids The Maya , another dominant civilization of Mesoamerica, made temple-pyramids the glorious centers of their great stone cities. One of the most famous, the magnificently carved Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque (Mexico), was a funerary monument to the seventh century king Hanab Pakal.

The tallest Maya pyramid, located in Tikal, Guatemala, dates to the eighth century A.D., before the civilization’s mysterious decline. Another Maya monument, built in the ninth and 10th centuries A.D., is at the center of the city of Uxmal in the Yucatan. Known as the Pyramid of the Magician or Sorcerer, it was (according to Maya legend) built by the god of magic, Itzamná, as a training center for shamans, healers and priests. The Maya city of Chichén Itzá contains the Castillo, or Temple of Kukulcan (“feathered serpent,” the Maya equivalent of Quetzalcoatl). Constructed around A.D. 1100, the 180-square-foot Castillo was constructed over another temple-pyramid built 100 years earlier. Its four stairways have 91 steps each, which combined with the single step at the entrance to the temple adds up to 365 stairs exactly–the number of days in the Mayan year.

(The Maya had a complex astronomical and cosmological system, and often angled their ceremonial buildings, like pyramids, so that they would face sunrise or sunset at particular times of the year.) Aztec Pyramids The Aztecs , who lived in the Mexican valley between the 12th and 16th centuries, also built pyramids in order to house and honor their deities. The elaborate nature of Aztec pyramids and other architecture was also connected to the Aztec’s warrior culture: The Aztec symbol for conquest was a burning pyramid, with a conqueror destroying the temple at its top. Tenochtitlan, the great Aztec capital, housed the Great Pyramid, a four-stepped structure some 60 meters high. At its top, two shrines honored Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of sun and war, and Tlaloc, god of rain and fertility. The Great Pyramid was destroyed along with the rest of the Aztec civilization by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his army in 1521. Underneath its ruins, the remains of six earlier pyramids were later found, evidence of the constant rebuilding process common to the Mesoamerican pyramids.

Located in the plains surrounding the city of Puebla (founded by the Spanish colonists), the pyramid complex of Cholula (named for the Mesoamerican people that built it) was the largest single structure in pre-Columbian Mexico. Constructed from adobe in four stages of construction beginning around the second century B.C., the Pyramid of Cholula measured 1,083 by 1,034 feet at the base and was about 82 feet high. The warrior Toltecs conquered the region around 1200, and rebuilt the pyramid as their ceremonial center. The Aztecs later claimed it as their own, dedicating it to the god Quetzalcoatl. When the Spaniards destroyed the holy city of Cholula in the 16th century, they built a church atop the ruins of the huge pyramid complex, in a conscious attempt to claim the New World for Christianity. Pyramids to the South: Moche & Inca More pyramids can be found in South America, which was home to indigenous populations like the Moche, Chimú and Incas.

The Moche, who lived along the northern coast of what is now Peru, built their pyramids of adobe, or sun-dried mud-bricks. The Huaca del Sol (or Holy Place of the Sun) was almost 100 feet tall and built of more than 143 million bricks, while the Huaca de la Luna (dedicated to the moon) was rebuilt multiple times over a 600-year period. Some 80 years before the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrived in the Andes, the Inca ruler Pachacuti Yupanqui (A.D. 1438 to 1471) began the construction of a great temple-pyramid, Sascahuamán, in the capital city of Cuzco. It took 20,000 workers 50 years to build the pyramid, constructed from huge stones fitted together without mortar. The Incas, Latin America’s last great indigenous civilization to survive, used the same building techniques to construct their marvelous stone city, Machu Picchu , high in the Andes. Tags Timeline 642- Egypt conquered by Arabs 700 A.D.

820- Caliph al Mamun entered the Great Pyramid 900 A.D. Casing blocks stripped off Giza pyramids 1000 A.D. Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | October 9, 2014 09:24pm ET MORE Credit: Dan Breckwoldt | Shutterstock Constructed between 2589 and 2504 B.C., the Egyptian pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, built in that order, are a testament to ancient planning and engineering. How these pyramids were built is a source of speculation and debate. Many researchers believe that a ramp system of some form was used to move the blocks into place during construction. When the pyramids were completed they were encased in white limestone, most of which is lost today . Recent research suggests that when the blocks were being moved across the desert, a small amount of water was put on the sand in front of them, making them easier to move.

Additionally, archaeologists have found new evidence that Giza had a bustling port , allowing goods to be shipped to the site from across Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Despite the differences among the three pyramids (Khufu’s pyramid, the "Great Pyramid," is several times the mass of Menkaure’s) the southeast tips of each pyramid align together almost precisely. Each pyramid had a mortuary and valley temple, with a causeway connecting them. They also had smaller pyramids referred to as satellite or queens' pyramids. The Sphinx, an enigmatic monument usually associated with king Khafre, stands watch near his valley temple. In addition, tombs sprawling to the east and west of Khufu’s pyramid contain the remains of officials, royal relatives and others who had the privilege to be buried there. To the south of the Sphinx is the “Wall of the Crow,” which is 656 feet (200 meters) long and 32 feet (10 m) thick. South of the wall is a settlement that archaeologists sometimes refer to as “the lost city.” This city has barracks that may have housed troops . Recently, archaeologists have discovered a mansion in the city that would have been used by senior officials.

The pyramid workers may have lived in simpler housing located by the pyramids themselves. Recent research has also revealed evidence for a massive catering operation that kept people at Giza fed. Khufu’s pyramid When it was completed by Khufu, the Great Pyramid rose 481 feet (146 m), approximately the height of a modern, 30-story office building. Today, with the loss of the some of the stone, the pyramid is slightly shorter, measuring 455 feet (138 m). It was the tallest building in the world until the 14th century, when the Lincoln Cathedral was completed in England. Three smaller pyramids, often referred to as queens’ pyramids, are located adjacent to Khufu’s pyramid. It’s difficult to say for sure for whom they were built, but one of them may have been for Khufu’s mother, Hetepheres. In addition, a smaller satellite pyramid, located between the queens’ pyramids and Khufu’s, was discovered in the 1990s.

Seven boat pits have been found at Khufu’s pyramid, two on the south side, two on the east side, two in between the queens’ pyramids and one located beside the mortuary temple and causeway. The best preserved boat, carefully reassembled from more than 1,200 pieces, is 142 feet (43 m) long, with wooden planks and oars. The purpose of these boats is a mystery. [Related: Natural Disasters in Ancient Egypt Revealed ] Khufu’s pyramid held three chambers. A grand gallery lead up to the king’s chamber, a red granite room that contains a now-empty royal sarcophagus. In the center of the pyramid is the so-called queen’s chamber, although it probably never held a queen. Beneath the pyramid is a subterranean chamber, its purpose, like the queen’s chamber, a mystery. Both the king’s chamber and the queen’s chamber contain two “air shafts” (it’s doubtful they were ever used as such). The shafts from the king’s chamber now lead outside, while the two from the queen’s chamber stop after a distance.

Robot exploration of the shafts reveal that they lead to doors with copper handles and hieroglyphs. Recently, archaeologist Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian minister of state for antiquities, told Live Science that he believes these shafts lead to Khufu’s real burial chamber. "There is no pyramid of the 123 pyramids in Egypt that have these type of doors with copper handles," Hawass said. "Really, I believe they're hiding something." The construction of Khufu’s pyramid complex was a massive undertaking. Archaeologist Mark Lehner, who excavates at Giza, estimates that — assuming Khufu reigned for about 30 years — an estimated 251 cubic yards (230 cubic meters) of stone per day had to be put down. That’s “a rate of one average-size block every two or three minutes in a ten-hour day,” he writes in his book " The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries " (Thames & Hudson, 2008), adding that estimates for the average size of these pyramid stones are as high as 2.5 tons.

Khafre’s pyramid Khufu’s successor, Djedefre, built his pyramid off-site at Abu Roash. The person who succeeded Djedefre, Khafre, returned to Giza and built a pyramid that, although smaller than Khufu’s, was on a slightly higher elevation. Only one satellite pyramid sits outside Khafre's pyramid. Inside, the pyramid's architecture is simpler than Khufu’s. It has two entranceways, both on the north side, one located 38 feet (12 m) above the base of the pyramid and another on ground level. Both entrances lead to passageways that ultimately lead to the burial chamber. Robbed long ago, this chamber contains a black granite sarcophagus that, when found in the 19th century, contained the bones of a bull, an animal loaded with religious symbolism in ancient Egypt; the body of the king himself was gone. Menkaure’s pyramid With a height of 215 feet (65 m) and a base of 335 by 343 feet (102 by 105 m), Menkaure’s is by far the smallest of the three pyramids.

Lehner notes that its building mass is about one-tenth that of Khufu’s pyramid. Its complex includes three queens’ pyramids on its south side. The entranceway for Menkaure’s pyramid is located just above ground level, its passages leading to an antechamber and burial chamber. An ornate sarcophagus was found in the 19th century by Howard Vyse but it was lost when the ship that was taking it to England, the Beatrice, sank. It’s a mystery as to why Menkaure’s pyramid is so much smaller than the other two. It could simply be that there wasn’t room at Giza for another large pyramid or perhaps events during Menkaure’s reign prevented him from building another large structure. No future pharaoh would ever build a pyramid as large as those built by Khufu and Khafre. The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt are pictured here.

USGS and University of Pennsylvania research shows that ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt's Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time. Credit: Benjamin P. Horton , University of Pennsylvania The Sphinx All three of Giza’s pyramids had mortuary temples connecting to valley temples through a causeway. However, in the case of Khafre’s pyramid, his valley temple also has an enigmatic monument nearby known as the Sphinx, with an uncompleted temple dedicated to it. The Sphinx is a 241-foot (74 m) long monument carved out of the limestone bedrock of the Giza Plateau. It has the face of a man and the body of a lion. The mythical creature is seen in art throughout the ancient Middle East, as well as in India and Greece. The word "sphinx" is, in fact, a Greek word meaning "strangler," according to Tour Egypt . The face of the giant statue at Giza may have been based on that of Khafre.

Efforts at conserving and restoring the Sphinx go back at least as far as 3,400 years. What purpose did the pyramids have? The simplest explanation for the use of the pyramids is that they were places of burial for their respective kings; the discovery of a sarcophagus in all three pyramids back this idea up. The pyramid complexes, and the grave goods once located inside them, helped the king ascend to the afterlife. In addition to being used to bury the pharaoh numerous mastaba tombs were built near the pyramids. These were used to bury royal family members and senior officials. Recently, an elaborate wall painting was discovered in one of these tombs. Interestingly, the spiritual importance of Giza appears to cross the ages. In late 2010, archaeologists announced the discovery of about 400 malnourished people, buried with few grave goods, located near the Wall of the Crow. They date to between 2,700 and 2,000 years ago, two millennia after the pyramids had been built, their burial location suggesting they had a desire to be near Giza.

Additional resources UNESCO's World Heritage List , which recognizes sites with cultural, historical and natural significance, includes the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Take a tour of the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx at Tour Egypt. Author Bio Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor Owen Jarus writes about archaeology and all things about humans' past for Live Science. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University. He enjoys reading about new research and is always looking for a new historical tale. Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor on Latest on Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx

Question: The Great Pyramid is in which country?
Answer: Egypt